Tile flooring is a great long-term option for your home. It is one of the most durable materials that you can choose. Unfortunately, the grout can make tile floors a little more work than they need to be. Having worked for a company that cleans and waxes tile flooring, I have learned a lot about taking care of tile flooring and grout to protect it from needing replaced prematurely. On my site you will learn about different grout options, as well as tips for keeping the grout from becoming discolored and stained. Hopefully, it will help you take the work out of owning a tile floor in your home.

tips for taking the work out of tile flooring

How To Maintain Hardwood Floors During The Winter

20 June 2018

Carter Morgan

Hardwood floors offer an incomparable aesthetic to the interior of your home, providing a luxurious and natural appearance that other types of materials can't accurately replicate. However, hardwood is susceptible to all sorts of environmental damage, especially during the winter months when moisture and temperature fluctuations are abundant. Understanding some of the things that you can do to help protect your hardwood floor surfacing can help you prevent any sort of aesthetic deterioration or physical damage from occurring.

Floor Mats

One of the easiest things that you can do to protect your hardwood floors when snow is covering the outdoors is to make sure that you lay down floor mats in any high traffic areas that may see outdoor shoes come by. This helps trap moisture and salt off of the surface of your hardwood, and reminds people who are just entering your home to take their shoes and boots off so that debris and moisture aren't tracked around other areas of your home. Be sure to wash out and properly dry these floor mats every few weeks as well, since they can eventually become soaked with moisture and may actually exacerbate the problem.

Climate Control

The winter weather brings cold temperatures and low levels of humidity with it, which can cause all sorts of structural issues to your hardwood flooring. This combination of coldness and dryness can cause your floorboards to shrink, exposing gaps between them that make it easier for damage to occur to your flooring. In order to prevent this from happening, it's a good idea to make sure that you maintain a moderate level of heating within your home. You may also want to install a portable humidifier, or a series of humidifiers, throughout your home to boost moisture levels and prevent the shrinking of your floorboards.

Cleaning

Finally, the most important thing that you can do to keep your hardwood floors looking as good as possible throughout the winter season is to make sure that you have a regular cleaning routine established to remove moisture and salt from your floors. Salt stains, in particular, can set into your floorboards and can be very difficult to remove. Vacuuming up the areas immediately around doors to the exterior of your home can eliminate salt before it manages to stain or scratch your floorboards. Regular cleaning with specialized wood cleaners can also remove stains and marring before they become set within your wood.